Voyager, season 3

FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 3
AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.9
-Basics, pt. 2 ***
The doctor and suder work from within to retake the ship, while paris finds some talaxians willing to help. Suder is traumatized by having to kill, a part of his life he had thought was behind him. A brilliant end to brad dourif's run as the sociopathic betazoid. The rest of the stranded crew face fifty-foot cave monsters, primitive aggressive humanoids, and an active volcano. A ripper.
-Flashback ***
Sulu! SULU!!!! George takei (plus grace lee whitney as rand, and michael ansara as kang) appears as part of a neurological infection affecting the dreams of tuvok, who served aboard Excelsior during the events of UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. He mind-melds with janeway and takes her into his visions. A rollicking good time.
-The Chute ***
Paris and kim are wrongly convicted and sentenced to life on a prison ship, where there are no guards and the inmates' violent tendencies are artificially stimulated, leading to paranoia and insanity. Voyager must find the actual guilty parties, before tom dies. A serviceable guest turn by robert pine (CHiPs '99, THE LITTLE CHP).
-The Swarm ***
Voyager must traverse a sector of space dominated by a collective of intelligent, inhospitable insectoids. The doctor's matrix is degrading, and he faces the loss of two years' memory. We meet another version of the doc, in the form of an acerbic diagnostic program. Kes is left alone to keep him alive and whole. Crisp, tight, and dangerous.
-False Profits ***
In a continuation of NEXT GEN's "The Price", Voyager encounters a pair of wormhole-transported ferengi who have set themselves up as gods on a pre-industrial planet. Yes, ferengi. Yes, three stars - in the delta quadrant, apparently anything's possible. And perhaps the most remarkable thing about this episode is that neelix is rather, well, wonderful. Never mind that he spends most of the episode as a fake ferengi. Or perhaps you should mind...perhaps he should have spent every episode pretending to be someone else? Either way, this one's fun.
-Remember **
While Voyager transports a group of telepathic aliens, b'elanna has surreal dreams of another life. A genocidal cover-up is uncovered. Game guest turns by bruce davison (V, X-MEN 1-2), eugene roche (SOAP, WEBSTER), and charles esten (WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY?, BIG LOVE) are wasted, as the poorly-written climactic scene devolves into speechifying histrionics that ring false on multiple levels.
-Sacred Ground **
When kes is injured on alien (insert title here), janeway must go on a spirit quest to save her. There is much satisfying in this one - winning performances and thoughtful writing nearly cover up what is probably esoteric drivel in which a "leap of faith" transcends empirical knowledge. But make no doubt, that clanging sound you hear is a franchise dropping the ball. I'm not talking about the rejection of science, or even that the character who should be at the forefront of said rejection (chakotay) is given inappropriate lines. No, i'm talking about janeway COVERING HER BREASTS while the aliens dress her. The TREK vision of humanity cannot possibly include a future wherein we're still crippled by sexual repression and self-loathing.
-Future's End 1&2 ****
-written by brannon braga, joe menosky
-directed by david livingston, cliff bole
A 29th-century timeship accidentally sends Voyager to 20th-century Earth, where they must pursue a monomaniacal businessman (ed begley, jr. - BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, A MIGHTY WIND) who created the computer age after finding a crashed timeship...but may end up destroying Earth's future. No, we don't buy the notion (again, TREK) that a ship full of humans would send a vulcan on a covert mission to a human planet, and we don't buy that capt. braxton wouldn't take back the doc's 29th-century mobile holo-emitter...but quibble schmibble, this one's thoroughly enchanting. Sarah silverman (JESUS IS MAGIC, THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM) plays a plucky Earth astronomer who helps our heroes, becoming involved with tom...his only satisfying romance of the series. Is this one four stars only because of the juice provided by begley and silverman? I want to say no, but could be wrong. Pay that no mind though, as the crew running around in 1997 is the most temporal fun the franchise has had since THE VOYAGE HOME.
-Warlord **
A dying warlord transfers his consciousness to kes's body, and uses her to topple an empire. Jennifer lien gets plenty to dig into, with homicide, lesbianism...and a kiss with tuvok! Sadly, the writing gets murky, particularly toward the end. The psychological effects of possession are short-shrifted, too.
-The Q and the Grey ***
Q oh q, doth we love you? We doth, i mean do, we do! After their last encounter with Voyager, civil war has broken out in the continuum. Q needs a new q to set things right, and he chooses janeway to be his mate. Then his actual q "mate" (TNG's suzie plakson - MY STEPMOTHER IS AN ALIEN, LOVE & WAR) shows up. Voyager gets pulled into the continuum, where the war manifests as the american Civil War. Can a species eons past physical copulation get jiggy?
-Macrocosm ***
An infestation of alien microorganisms grow to an alarming size. Janeway gets all ramboed up, plus another red herring death for neelix!
-Fair Trade **
Worried that his use to Voyager is diminishing, neelix uses shady methods trying to acquire a map. If ferengi fare is to your taste, enjoy.
-Alter Ego ***
Harry falls in love with a hologram character, and goes to tuvok for self-control mentoring. Tuvok falls in love too, and discovers an alien using the ship's technology to interact with the crew. A poignant revelation of vulcan loneliness, and a delicate, delightful performance by sandra nelson (LIFE AS A HOUSE, DE-LOVELY).
-Coda ***
Chakotay and janeway crash on a planet and become stuck in a seeming time loop where janeway dies again and again. What, he couldn't have taken neelix? But her hallucinations are merely an alien wishing to harvest her consciousness...an ominous touch, as is the suggestion that all "near-death" experiences are just brushes with vampiric aliens, in this case manifesting rather convincingly as janeway's dead father (len cariou - ABOUT SCHMIDT, BLUE BLOODS). This episode strikes a blow for traditional TREK rationality (take that, white light!). As much as i love that, this deserved a bit more deftness, and it will be fascinating to find out what science will actually have found out about all this by the 24th century. What if both the rationalist and irrationalist perspectives are wrong?
-Blood Fever ***
Ensign vorik undergoes pon farr and mindmelds with b'elanna, causing her to experience it as well. In a fevered delirium, she attempts to initiate klingon mating with tom. The doc provides a holo-vulcan mate for vorik, which seems to work...until he challenges tom to a death duel for b'elanna. She champions herself, and kicks his ass. A lovely episode diminished a bit by sexual puritanism (wouldja just hump the poor woman, paris?)...but with an eye-opening ending, as a dead borg drone is discovered.
-Unity ***
Arriving like a glass of water in a sleepwalker's face...the borg!! Voyager discovers an adrift cube, and a planetside society of alpha quadrant ex-drones who have individuality (but can still access each other's minds). They save a mortally-injured chakotay by bringing him into their link. He has a romance with one of them, then they use him as a pawn...but politely. This one has four-star potential - the scenes of Voyager dealing with the cube, and the visuals chakotay experiences as he touches the link, are stunning. And his experience being linked to a collective makes one feel a little better about the ultimate decision to hitch seven's romantic wagon to our spiritual first officer.
-Darkling **
Wait...so kes actually DID break up with neelix? I thought that was only because she was possessed by the warlord! What, she had a post-exorcism moment of clarity and realized the warlord was right about that one lil' thing?? Well, okay, far be it from me to complain. So, um, the doctor attempts to expand his personality by incorporating elements of historical figures into his program. Kes falls in love with an alien. But the doctor develops a unethical alter-ego, and tries to kill her new shmoopie. The only robert picardo episode that doesn't quite click.
-Rise **
A fresh recycling of the LIFEPOD plot, as tuvok and neelix become stranded in a rising anti-grav carriage with four aliens, while trying to help a planet bombarded by asteroids. Deceit, manipulations, and murder ensue. Neelix finally snaps with frustration at tuvok's dispassionate empiricism, and forces an intuitive decision. If not for the neelix chemistry void, this one could have worked.
-Favorite Son ***
After experiencing bizarre intuitions and DNA changes, kim leads Voyager to a planet where the locals greet him as a returning native, telling him that his humanity was only a temporary adaptation. With a 1 to 9 male-to-female (including kristanna loken - TERMINATOR 3, THE L WORD) ratio, they very much want him to stay...but is there a dark secret lurking?
-Before and After ***
Seven years in the future, the doctor tries to expand the dying kes's lifespan, and the treatment triggers regressive time jumps which culminate in the fetal stage, while passing through a life in which janeway and torres violently die, and kes has a child (jessica collins - CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, LEPRECHAUN 4: IN SPACE) with paris...who in turn has a child with harry. Kes' mom? Rachael harris (BEST IN SHOW, A MIGHTY WIND). Bear with this one - the chemistry and acting falter at first, but eventually it all clicks...including fascinating previews of the excellent "Year of Hell".
-Real Life ***
The doctor creates a holographic family, but b'elanna is dismayed by his conflict-free learning environment. Once she makes it more realistic, he is overwhelmed by normal (well, 20th-century normal) family dysfunction. The fact that this portrayal of monogamously-isolated domestic reality is antiquated even by our own standards, is forgivable given the extent to which they then subvert that reality. His son spurns him in favor of klingon friends, his wife exhibits self-determination, and his daughter suffers a horrible accident. He shuts the program down, but is convinced to return by paris, who reminds him of the dual nature of emotional bonds (robert mcneill's best scene of the entire series). At the end, as the daughter dies and the family grieves, i cried.
-Distant Origin ****
-written by brannon braga, joe menosky
-directed by david livingston
A saurian paleontologist (henry woronicz - PRIMARY COLORS, MOESHA) tracks Voyager, having discovered that their own transwarp-capable race originated on Earth, then developed space travel and left the planet 20 million years ago to avoid a mass extinction. He brings chakotay back, but is forced to recant his findings when the government labels him a heretic and threatens to imprison Voyager's crew for life. This is probably the most scientific four-star TREK ever...and a galilean episode is long overdue, given that his name adorned one of the classic Enterprise's shuttles. This airtight mix of infamy, goodness, menace, and a little humor is enhanced by some of the most convincing TREK aliens ever - the performances delivered through pounds of prosthetic are indelible, especially from woronicz and his inquisitor, chillingly rendered by concetta tomei (CHINA BEACH, DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD). I almost just now lauded their searing portrayals of "humanity" (forgive my malapropism)...but that's exactly what TREK does at its best. Enthralling. Chest-tightening. Jaw-dropping.
-Displaced ***
One by one, the crew are instantly replaced by strangers who don't seem to know why they're there...until chakotay is the only one left, trying to sabotage as much as he can before disappearing too. They find themselves in a holographic biopod aboard a prison ship, with Voyager in service to the aliens. The table-turning ending is just a little too easy and convenient - this would have been more intensely chaotic had they made this a two-parter and simultaneously released all the other alien crews. But that criticism is of course also a compliment.
-Worst Case Scenario ***
B'elanna accidentally discovers a holo-simulation of a maquis mutiny. Before long, everyone is playing. The anonymous author turns out to be a security-minded tuvok. When he and tom attempt to expand the program, a bug seska installed kicks in, sealing the holodeck and trying to kill them. A fun little ride.
-Scorpion, pt. 1 ****
-written by brannon braga, joe menosky
-directed by david livingston
Voyager approaches borg space, and faces the possibility of having to turn around and give up returning home. Suddenly fifteen borg cubes pass at high speed, and are destroyed by a merciless enemy called species 8472, which cannot be assimilated. Voyager studies the species, and janeway offers the borg data in exchange for safe passage. Guest star john rhys-davies (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, LORD OF THE RINGS) is brilliant as a holographic leonardo da vinci. Adrenalin spikes bookend a dark, powerful episode. One of the few small-screen TREKs to have big-screen presence.